Fruit DIY Christmas Ornaments
Let’s Talk Fruit
Did you know that when people first started to decorate Christmas trees they often used items that they could easily find throughout their homes? For example, they may put pine cones on their tree because they were easily collected outside. Other times, they would hang oranges or apples from their trees whole. The only issue with hanging fruit as Christmas ornaments onto their trees was that this fruit was often needed to eat rather than sit on the tree for a month…and not many fruits are going to stay fresh for this amount of time. That is one reason that many households did not put up a Christmas tree because it was much closer to Christmas Eve.
However, while we have advanced from hanging everyday elements onto our Christmas trees, that doesn’t mean that we have to forget about fruit altogether. Fruit can be beautiful as Christmas ornaments on your tree, depending upon the type of fruit that you end up using. This can give your rich reds and golds, that will look amazing with other Christmas ornaments that you may hang onto your Christmas trees.
How to Create Fruit DIY Christmas Ornaments
The good news is that you can dry out your own fruit to hang onto your tree. So, how can you get started with fruit DIY Christmas ornaments? Here is what you are going to need:
- Fruit that you want to dry, think about colors when choosing this. But here are some of the more popular options: apples, oranges, grapefruit, pears, star fruit, lemons, etc.
- Baking sheet
- Lemon juice
- Twine
- Toothpick
- Knife
- Clear varnish (optional)
To start, be sure to preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Now you are going to slice the fruit that you have decided to use as Christmas ornaments. Note, be sure that if you are using apples that you dip these into lemon juice to help them keep their original color rather than turning brown.
You need to dry these fruit slices, so lay them on paper towels. Then lay another paper towel on top to help absorb any juice. After they are dry, use a toothpick to make a small hole in the top of the fruit which you will later use to hang onto your tree.
Put the fruit slices onto the baking sheet and bake for around 4 to 6 hours. Once you have removed these and they are cool, take the twine and loop this into the hole that you made at the top of the fruit. Tie a knot in the twine, and then you have your fruit Christmas ornaments ready to hang onto your tree.
The option step at this point is to coat each fruit piece with clear varnish. This can make them shine and help preserve them if you plan on using these Christmas ornaments for many years to come. The option is to up to you and whether you will be using these fruit Christmas ornaments for more than one season. While the process may be long in terms of baking time, it is still relatively easy.
